Infinite
by Sunshine Conlon
Summary: The Avengers are faced to defeat a seemingly impossible foe, who manipulates each of their weaknesses for a tenacious battle against time. The battle appears to be perpetual and unconquerable, but invincibility can be found through the progression of their powers and abilities, and working as a team.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude." For years I pursued any sort of companionship, after spending years in seclusion. Yet, now I find myself back where I started- alone in the confines of where I found myself lost in my work.

"You spend almost as much time as I do in here; that's saying a lot."

Stark stood with well-rested eyes and a coffee in his hand- the sign of a laid back day, which happened to be very scarce.

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, "Trying fundamental interaction again. Not working out too well."

"What forces?"

"Electroweak and electrostrong. I know it takes a lot to actually accomplish it, but I thought I would be able to because, well, you know. I just can't exactly figure it out." I confessed.

He jammed his free hand into his pocket and leaned onto the table next to him, nearly knocking over my ionization chamber. I turned back to my work and rubbed my eyes, resulting in blurry vision and another yawn.

"Why don't you get some sleep? You look exhausted." he offered.

"Yes, Ms Merrick. I would recommend some sleep to be able to retain what information you've discovered today." J.A.R.V.I.S. suggested.

I gave a half smile and knew I had been defeated.

"Fine, but J.A.R.V.I.S. let me know if something happens overnight. If my breakthrough occurs while I'm sleeping, I want to be woken up for it." I yawned once again and made my way past Tony and toward my room, seeing Wanda near my door.

"Wanda?" I asked.

She turned and chuckled.

"I was knocking on your door. It sounded like you were going through-"

"I would have alerted one of the team members immediately, but thank you for your concern." I replied calmly, "Plus, you would have been able to tell."

"Oh, Brielle. Sometimes you really never know." she said, following me into my room.

I shrugged and plopped down on my bed, and within the next thirty seconds I surrendered myself to sleep.

I woke to sunlight seeping through the windows, granting me a headache to begin my day. My body was cold and rigid, although I had ample warmth provided by the sun. It took me a few moments to realize that my bed had collapsed on its legs and had created dents in the floor.

I had slept into the next day all the way up to three in the afternoon.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., who's home?" I asked.

"It seems that Vision is the only resident present."

Of course; I hadn't expected him to be going out for leisure anytime soon- especially looking like he did. The public would have a conniption! I changed into a pair of skinny jeans and found an electric blue t-shirt that complimented my eyes.

"What happened last night?" I asked.

"It seems you had increased your force of gravity in your sleep." JARVIS responded.

I hadn't done that in a while. When I first moved into Avengers Tower, I had a new bed delivered everyday because I would unknowingly destroy them in my sleep. Whatever I did, I didn't want to happen again.

Vision was waiting in the hallway outside of my bedroom for me and I shrieked quietly before quickly quieting myself.

"What are you _doing_ out here?" I snapped.

"I was waiting for you to wake. The team has gone searching for entertainment and I can not say I do not crave anything less in these hours."

I shrugged and brushed passed him to my lab, where he obliged to follow.

"Fundamental interaction?"

"You understand it?" I asked, surprised that he had known something so profound and not prevalent beyong physicists. Tony didn't care much for it, so my experimentation were left to JARVIS and myself.

"Well, I do possess superhuman intelligence. So, yes." he replied. He stood next to me a considerable distance before looking me in the eyes.

"What if we unified gravity with the forces?" Vision asked, "You can do that, right?"

"That would be stepping into the bounds of the theory of everything," I responded, a slight smirk on my face, "I like that idea."

He shut his eyes and appeared to be thinking, so I took it upon myself to reach into my bowl of trail mix and pick out a few almonds. Vision reached down to grab onto my wrist and let go just as quickly as it had appeared.

"With a discovery like this, your work would surpass Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking. It would be an unimaginable breakthrough and physicists would use it to understanding... everything." he said.

"I guess we'll see," I motioned for him to follow me, "I only need to use a theoretical particle which is actually existent."

The two of us took the elevator to the bottom level of the Avengers Tower where my much larger lab was, containing a collider tunnel that was only a quarter of a mile long, with considerably shorter than what the most modern scientists attempted to use.

I took a handful of trail mix from the table next to me and ate it in seconds, then scarfed down another soon after. Trail mix helped me maintain energy and therefore was kept everywhere in the tower.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Vision asked.

My hands were shaking, but I couldn't be more sure that I could control the forces and deliver the answer to the most complex theories in physics.

"Ms Merrick, I recommend you wait until Mr Stark arrives." JARVIS suggested.

"What's he going to do? Take a picture?" I asked.

I put on a jacket and threw open the door to the collider, which was actually just a metal cylinder that was large enough for me to stand in. No magnets or specialty materials- I didn't need it. My only resources was myself.

"I suggest I should contact Dr Cho." JARVIS yet again suggested.

Vision came and shut the collider door so I was alone standing in darkness. I had never tried controlling multiple forces at once, let alone with gravity, but I had a burning capacity for discovery and recognition.

I could generate an electroweak and electrostrong force, but the electromagnetic force took more effort than I realized was required. I couldn't concentrate enough to recognize gravitons, and my body collapsed.

 **This chapter is used to introduce my OC, and her abilities. If you hadn't caught on by now, she has the power to manipulate physics. More will happen in the next chapters obviously, this chapter is just important for development. Leave thoughts below and critique is appreciated. x**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I woke to Dr Cho hovering over my body, swiftly bandaging my upper arm that had been poked with a syringe. My head lazily lolled to the side to then see Tony staring at me, displeased.

"Come to gloat?" I asked with a smirk.

"Came to tell you that you're an idiot." he replied coolly, "You knew you couldn't do that and look where it got you."

A pain rose up through my arms and I winced, remembering the stabbing pain that came with a syringe.

"You were suffering from hypoglycemia... again. I gave you two syringes of glucagon," Helen gave a smirk, "Just wait until Fury gets a load of this!"

I let out a scoff and glared at Tony, who shrugged and left the room. Helen sat in the chair next to me with a clipboard, although she had memorized my answers.

"Weakness and fatigue?"

"Yes."

"How many calories-"

"1600, in the first half of my day."

She gave me a glance, signaling that I hadn't consumed enough. Whenever I tried pulling my stunts, my blood sugar dipped incredibly. The more I practiced, the less calories I had to consume. That was all I needed- practice.

"I would advise that you go out, get a milkshake with some fries, and discontinue your schemes for today." she said.

"Helen, I mean, Dr Cho, I would have to advise you that it would be impossible for me to not be devious in some sort," I took a sharp breath in as I sat up, "It's not in my nature."

She waved me off, signaling that I could leave. I hopped off of the steel bed and left the dim room to see Pietro with a phone cradled between his head and shoulder, his hands occupied with writing on a notepad in Sokovian.

I continued walking to my room, where a new bed frame and flooring was installed. Vibranium was placed underneath the fours of my bed frame to prevent future bedtime predicaments. The sun cast a light on my wall that illuminated the metal and bounced a glare into my eyes.

I wasn't permitted to have a normal bedroom; I would single-handedly destroy it with an involuntary rage. My actions were primarily involuntary, in fact. Not once have I purposefully torn apart my room for the fun of it.

Pietro called my name a few times from a distance before planting his feet close to me, a leather jacket in hand.

"Duty calls," he said sarcastically, before throwing it in my face, "I don't suppose you were busy?"

"Who me? Of course, not." I replied, "You know that."

He chuckled and shook his head before stepping backwards a few steps and speeding out of my room. I threw on the jacket and jogged out of my room.

The full Avengers team was gathered around a table, Wanda sipping coffee and Banner tapping chopsticks against the table as if he was playing drums.

"Give us the sugar, JARVIS." Stark called.

"There is a suspected man holding citizens hostage in Kingsbridge. The police have called and asked for your assistance in the matter."

"What?" I laughed, "Are you serious? That is not our job. If we were to be called to every little incident like this, we wouldn't have time to administer to more important matters like, oh, I don't know, saving the world?"

"Good! You and Pietro are about to leave with a one way ticket to Kingsbridge." Tony said. Wanda choked on her coffee with laughter.

"Why us? You could take them out in seconds." Pietro complained.

"I'm not going to be seen in public and neither are the rest of us. You two aren't recognizable by anybody." Banner retorted, "Plus, you guys could use some practice."

. . . .

"You know, we _do_ work well together."

I looked up at Pietro as we were walking down the sidewalk, earning a few glances from bystanders.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Neither of us ever get killed because as soon as we see bullets flying, we find a way to stop them." he said.

I stayed silent. We didn't need to talk to each other to stay comfortable. Silence helped me think, and I was beginning to think that I wished we had more information on the mission. The farther we walked, the smaller the group of spectators became. And we soon became faced with the address Pietro was given.

Pietro shifted from side to side as he was observing the scene before him. It took me only a few moments to become frustrated.

"Did you write it down wrong?" I snapped.

"This is it," he chuckled, "Maybe it already happened?'

I smiled, "We could've ran... probably a little faster than most."

The 'house' the 'hostages' were supposed to be held at was empty and didn't look like it had been occupied in several months. It didn't make sense as to why the police would call us somewhere that didn't seem to have been touched. And also as to why Pietro would be given strict instructions to come here. It didn't make sense and I didn't like that.

"Who called you?" I asked.

"The police department." he replied.

Pietro looked down at me and I met his glance. We stood there for a second before I took a cautious step toward the house.

There was a loud blast and as soon as I recognized that we were in the air, I took the gravity out from around us and latched onto Pietro's body. His arm wrapped around me and pulled me against him before we bounced lightly to the ground, a surge of heat from the explosion arriving shortly after.

I rolled off of him and coughed loudly, my body trembling with the loss of energy. My eyes fought to stay open as I looked to contemplate what had just happened. A land mine had exploded and had sought to kill the both of us.

"Pietro," I coughed loudly again, "Are you alright?"

He took a few quick breaths before nodding. I felt incredibly weak from the blast and could barely stand.

"Get us-," I coughed again, "Get us to Avengers Tower."

Pietro stood and let me climb onto his back before returning back at Avengers Tower in maybe two seconds- I couldn't really tell. I hopped off of his back before we walked inside.

"Pietro," Wanda ran over to her brother and cupped his face in her hands, "Are you okay?"

He nodded and held onto her hands, "Yes, I am okay. We were just... surprised."

"Surprised is one way of saying it." I said. Natasha took me by the arm and together we walked to the kitchen, passing by Tony and Bruce in the lab and the others off in their own confines.

My legs were still shaky and wobbly as I walked with Natasha for support. We sat down near the kitchen where Steve was flipping burgers, a humorous sight to see.

"I don't understand. The police called Pietro and told us to be somewhere that just about got us killed. If it hadn't been us, let's say, some little kids that had gone out to play, they _would have_ been killed." I said.

She took my hands in hers and squeezed them.

"JARVIS, report on the attack." Natasha called out.

"The phone call is from the New York police number, but it had to have been hacked by a source I can't define. It was a setup-"

"Someone is out to kill us." Steve said.

"It seems to appear that way. I will continue to track the source to the best of my abilities."

It scared me that we were all in danger and we couldn't track who was trying to potentially kill all of us. I wondered who would attempt to do such a thing- it was a risky move to go after the Avengers. And whoever it was wanted to be concealed.

"You two are panicking," Wanda stepped towards us with Pietro beside her, "You need to relax."

Pietro looked at me before letting out a chuckle.

"It is hard for us not to panic. We are being watched." he retorted.

Steve set down a plate of a hamburger and french fries in front of my face, and another on the opposite side of the table for Pietro, who zoomed to the seat designated for him.

"What I want to know is why they're trying to stay hidden. You don't just throw a stone and run... whoever this is _must_ be dangerous." I commented.

I took a large bite of the hamburger and tried to relax myself. The team stopped talking about it and began to part their ways, leaving us alone at the table in silence. My mind was racing, becoming increasingly frustrated as I couldn't figure out who or what this thing was that had a goal to hurt us.

Pietro was bouncing his leg and looking across the room at nothing in particular, eating a lot faster than I had been. I decided to let it go and come to the conclusion that sitting here eating burgers was not going to be enough if we were going to live.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Steve shot another bullet in my direction which I quickly stopped to a hault and watched fall to the floor. He shot another, then another, then another which had also been terminated. After another round of bullets, he set the gun down.

"Eat some of your trail mix." he suggested.

I wandered across the room and took a small handful of it, throwing it all into my mouth and chewing the nuts as I walked back to the center of the room. We had been at this for a while now, doing exercises that were intended to make me react faster to real life situations.

"What's next?" I asked.

He shrugged, defining the muslces in his upper body. He was built, definitely a lot more built than I was.

"Well, we've done all of your exercises. You could use some practice on applied force control, though." he suggested.

I nodded as we walked over to where a line of dummies were set up, ranging from the weight of a baby to the weight of the Hulk. They were faceless, only having a target in the center of their body. Steve stood behind the smallest one and gave it a strong push and running quickly to next one.

I quickly constructed an energized force that sent the dummy flying to crash against the wall. He pushed the next one, then the next one, requiring more effort than the last. With each one came a loud thud against the wall and heavier breathing of effort from the both of us.

He finally pushed the Hulk-sized dummy that moved slowly, but went flying against the wall as soon as I focused on it.

"How'd I do?" I asked.

"Better than last time, that's for sure." Steve replied, slightly out of breath.

We sauntered over to grab a handful of trail mix and a long drink of water, signaling the end of our session.

"You know," I laughed, "I bet I could beat you in a fight."

Steve glanced down at me before laughing and ruffling his hand through my hair.

"That's funny, Blondie. But that won't happen." he said.

"Meet you on the mat?"

Within seconds he had me in a choke hold. My legs twisted around one of his own tree trunk legs that I took out from underneath him. He fell flat on top of me, all of his weight causing me to grunt unattractively. I feverishly smacked on the floor and signaled my defeat, not being able to breathe.

"Mercy! Mercy!" I shouted.

Steve let go and helped me up before giving me a hard slap on the back, nearly sending me on my knees. We shut the lights off to the training room before stopping outside the door.

"Can we study later tonight?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. Let me know when you're not busy." he replied.

We nodded and parted our seperate ways.

I went back to my room and fell on my bed, exhausted from the training I'd done today. It was practice, which helped make me stronger, but I could only do so much. Practice would help keep me safe from whatever we were trying to protect ourselves from.

There was a loud knock on the door.

"Yes?" I asked.

"It's Wanda."

"Come in."

She walked in and sat on my bed next to me. Wanda was the first Avenger I really trusted, because she was the first one who could prove to be like me. We have been close since the moment I first met her, despite having just committed mass murder. It was a blessing to have a maternal soul to watch after me, even without the guidance of parents herself.

"I'm scared." I whispered.

Wanda rolled her eyes.

"Brielle, you and Pietro have nothing to be afraid of. You have all of us, and your powers are getting better and more controlled." she said.

"It kills me not knowing what happened, or why. I wish I had a little hint." I replied, my voice clearly choking back a sob. I hated how emotional I got, and how obsessive I became over these types of situations.

"If it makes you feel any better, Pietro is the same way. He... he is bothered. And relentless. Which is dangerous with his patience." She looked down at her hands and sighed.

We sat in silence for a few moments while I contemplated what she said. I knew that if something didn't happen soon, Pietro would make something happen. I probably had work that I could distract myself with, a new physics discovery that I could be working toward, but I wasn't interested in the moment. Although missions like this terrified me, I would rather get it over with than be left waiting.

"Where is Pietro anyway?" I asked.

"I cannot believe we're going back." I repeated, "I _cannot_ believe we are going back."

He rolled his eyes. It must be a Maximoff thing.

"Oh, stop complaining. We made it out alive last time, didn't we?" he replied.

"If I hadn't reacted fast enough, maybe we wouldn't have been so lucky."

"Then stay alert and we won't have any problems?" Pietro suggested with a smirk.

I laughed. We walked, still not recognizable by the general public. The little incident hadn't been reported to any news shows which had helped kept us discreet. Nobody but us was there to witness it anyway, and it could be considered abandoned.

We arrived in the same place, not moving any closer than we had stood last time.

"Listen," I looked up at Pietro, "I'm going to see if there's any more land mines or dangerous weapons. If something explodes, you better run us out of here. Okay?"

Pietro nodded and had one hand on the back of my head, and the other around my stomach, ready in case of emergency.

I took the gravity out from around the scene and raised up the dust off of the ground, and about 25 land mines. If I dropped them, it would be incredibly dangerous and destructive. My mind was racing and I could feel myself perspiring from the pressure.

"Okay," I swallowed nervously, "I'm going to slowly set them all down. When I say, 'now', you're going to grab me and run. Okay?"

He nodded and held onto me tightly. I winced and slowly let the land mines begin to float toward the ground. When they were inches above the ground, I shouted.

"Now!"

I dropped them and there were explosions after explosions, that I assumed. We were several hundred yards away from the house before I could see the mines get set off. They were visible from where we stood, scaring several civilians.

"I feel like those would have been exploded yesterday." Pietro said.

"Someone put them back, knowing that we would come back." I added, watching the smoke climb into the sky.

He furrowed his brows and watched the scene with me, the house eventually catch on fire and the sound of blaring sirens within a few minutes of the accident. I nervously bit at my thumb nail thinking about how the nation would react. It was a wake up call, that was certain, but nobody could be sure for what reason.

We were caught off guard by crowded screams a few hundred feet away. In less than a second, we were in the middle of the crowd that was huddled around a tv store, the news being displayed on every tv that typically played different channels.

On the tv flashed citizens running in terror and being frozen by ice. The camera zoomed in on a thing that appeared to be a human made out of ice, shooting ice out of his body and freezing an entire town in Ukraine.

I heard muffled sobs from around us. Pietro looked at me, certain that whatever was happening in Ukraine was tied with what we had just accomplished.

" _The mutant, being known as 'Ice Man', had been allegedly released by a mutant known as Magneto-_ "

"Isn't he the guy who ' _saved_ ' you?!" I exclaimed.

He swallowed hard.

"We don't exactly keep in touch."

* * *

 _I hope you can tell that I have obviously made some changes. I don't exactly consider this a crossover, because this is focused on a broader aspect of the Marvel Universe. Pietro and Wanda grew up to their parents and after some tribulation end up being rescued by Magneto. I appreciate feedback!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I knocked softly on Wanda's door, who could be heard quietly sobbing from the other side.

"What do you want?" she whimpered.

"It's me." I replied.

"Come in."

My hands conjured a force that pushed the door open as quietly as possible and shut it behind me gently as I stepped in. Wanda was found sitting up against her headboard with her arms folded on top of her knees that were brought up to her chest. Her face was stained with tears that continued to fall.

I walked over and crawled next to her, letting her lean into my body.

"I don't want to seem insensitive, but can I ask for the exact reason you're crying?" I asked.

"It feels terrible to know that we used to work for someone so evil," she turned to look me in the eyes, "We felt like he was our protector... we were wrong."

There wasn't anything exactly comforting that I could reply with at the time, so I stayed silent and encouraged her to keep talking.

"I know how powerful he is, my, he is powerful. If he is the one creating this war, I don't know how we will end it." she continued.

The idea of fighting a war against Magneto was far past disturbing. Tony couldn't fight with us, Captain couldn't use his shield, Hawkeye couldn't use his arrows, Rhodey couldn't fight with us either, Falcon couldn't fly, Natasha couldn't use weapons... how would we fight?

"Well, I mean... I don't know how we're going to win. But I know that we are, especially if we work together. You and Pietro, you have been with him for a long time. You must know what some of his weaknesses are?" I replied.

There was a slight breeze and Pietro appeared leaning against the wall, looking unhappy.

"I suppose that he is a popular topic among the tower." he said.

I nodded and let out a sigh.

"He wants mutants to rule the world." Wanda added.

"Doesn't sound half bad!" I joked.

Pietro appeared several inches away from my face, leaning over me with a menacing look.

"You have no idea how it feels to grow up like one of them. The two of us have gone through hell and back because of our powers. You don't know how it is to be one of them, it is terrible," he spat.

I crossed my arms and scoffed at him.

"I don't know how it is to be one of them?" I asked, "I might not have grown up to be a mutant but don't think I haven't been through hell because I am now. I killed my own parents, and hundreds of lives. And almost killed myself. You don't think I went through hell?"

Pietro realized he had been defeated and sped back to where he originally stood.

"There is a requested meeting right now, if you would be willing to attend." JARVIS said.

I glared at Pietro and violently brushed past him out of the doorway. His hand cleched my arm tight as he yanked me close to him.

"Stop being a little bitch," he growled, "I'm sorry, okay? No need to get into one of your little moods."

"Please cease yourself. You have anger management issues and don't know how to control your emotions." I nudged his hand off of me and let Wanda walk alongside me as Pietro sped ahead. I realized I didn't sound so threatening, but I could be if need be. We kept our arguing as minimal as possible for Wanda's sake.

The team was sat around a very, very large table with a holographic videos presented mid-air in front of every seat. Much of the team looked disinterested and settled in their seat comfortably. Banner was looking at something on his phone, Thor bit his nails, Clint had a pile of his arrows on the table and was sharpening them with the help of Natasha. Pietro was sat with his eyes darting around the room.

Meanwhile, Tony stood at the front of the room showing footage of the earlier attack in Ukraine. Wanda sat next to me and I could tell she was reading the minds of the inhabitants of the room. Suddenly she turned to me, looking worried.

"Nobody cares about this attack," she took a shaky breath, "I don't understand-"

"Listen up, Avengers." Tony announced. We all looked at him attentively, but I knew that majority could care less at the situation at hand.

He flashed the video footage of the attack, booming the volume so the screams of the civilians were amplified. I watched again and focused on the man made of ice surfing through the town. Tony paused the video and zoomed in on him.

"JARVIS, update us." Tony said.

"Drake Roberts, or as he is known as, Ice Man, has the power to manipulate ice and has the ability to shoot it from his body in a water vapor. As shown, his body can turn into ice and freeze anything around him."

The video instead opened his profile with pictures of him and his abilities, as well as a biography. Tony continued to speak but I honestly couldn't focus either. I already knew that the team wasn't going to want to fight this, even though he would be an easy capture.

"So, what do you guys think?" Tony asked.

"Eh, I don't think this is a big issue..." Captain shifted in his chair, "I mean, are we really going to go all the way to Ukraine so Thor can blast him with his hammer and he shatters?"

I could see Pietro getting antsy and agitated from where he sat. Natasha let out a chuckle.

"If it's that easy, send Thor and we'll all just wait here." she suggested, "If it's that easy."

Tony became incredibly frustrated and began pacing around us in a circle.

"Guys, I don't think you see the big picture! I mean look, yeah, he may be easy but what? He just disappears and that's all? Trust that there's more of them. JARVIS?" Tony said.

On the screen appeared more mutants, looking equally as difficult to defeat as the Ice Man. I could see the team getting more irritated by the second and not paying attention.

"I don't think you guys see the big picture, either!" Wanda exclaimed.

The team half scoffed and half tried to pay attention.

"Do you know who is controlling all of these people? It's Magneto, and he's powerful." she added.

On the screen appeared his face and several, several news articles about danger he's caused. The team scrolled through the information as did I. His powers honestly scared me, he could do so many things. I looked around the room unnerved.

"I say we leave it. He's too powerful for us to handle and if he's not causing any direct trouble, I don't want a part in it." Banner declared.

"Are you insane?" Tony spat, "Sure, he only has one of his freaks out there but then there will be another, and another. You don't realize how serious this is!"

Pietro sped over to Wanda's side and hugged her. She was upset, incredibly upset.

"It just seems too minor at the moment. When something big happens, let me know." Thor said.

I stood up out of my chair which caused the steel to screech against the floor.

"Brielle," Cap warned.

"Listen. I need you guys to get a hell of a lot more serious about this. Alright? He's incredibly dangerous. He's controlling all of his mutants to distract us. Magento is more powerful than everyone we have ever faced combined. If we let them go off and keep doing this, he'll only get stronger." I said.

"It's too dangerous for us!" Thor roared.

I was scared and took the electricity out of the room for a moment before letting it flicker back on.

"Sir, I am-" JARVIS tried to utter, but his voice became construed and indecipherable.

"What did you do!?" Clint shouted.

"It isn't me!" I exclaimed.

The screens flickered off and a different screen came into view. There stood the President of the United States, a bandana tied around his mouth as a gag and his body hanging from a cross. One of the mutants came into view recognized as Storm.

"You want him back? Tell your Avengers to come and find us," she crossed her arms, "And if they don't, well, you can only last so long hanging like that."

The screens flashed and the original pictures of Magneto were shown, along with video footage of the message that had just been played. I sat back in my chair and waved the screen down so that it disappeared.

"JARVIS?" Tony asked.

"It seems that the message infiltrated every screen across America, oddly with the exception of Texas." he responded.

Pietro was hugging Wanda to his chest and staring at me meanwhile. I gave him a helpless expression, letting him know that I had nothing to offer him.

Maria Hill opened the door to our room and smirked.

"Get your asses in a quinjet."

* * *

 _Again, I'm not considering this a crossover considering they are apart of the MCU. I thought I would throw in what I believe to be one of the hardest villains to defeat. Tell me what you think! And maybe how you think Magneto could be defeated? (I myself have had to do tons of research on him) xx_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We hadn't come up with a complete strategy yet. For all we knew, Ice Man slipped on his own ice and shattered himself and we were flying to Ukraine for a good time. JARVIS had been doing a great job in keeping us updated with the mutants and if there had been any new ones submerging in the media.

I sat in the back of the quinjet with Steve as we read through the Book of Romans in the New Testament. As of right now we had read to chapter five and were taking turns reading out loud to each other.

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Steve read.

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope," I highlighted those verses, "I really like reading this. It always makes me feel like there's, well, as it said, hope."

He smiled and nodded before shutting his Bible and moving it off to the side.

"I'm glad you'll read it with me. Even if it's just a few verses everyday, I think it makes a difference." Steve shared.

"I've gathered some information," JARVIS announced, "There is a party held in Kiev that Ukranian government officials will be attending. My guess is that one of the mutants will be there, I would go as to not chance anything else from happening."

"That's odd that government officials would attend a party after a mutant froze a quarter of their country." I commented.

"Is it business casual?" Thor joked.

"I'm afraid it is formal dress." JARVIS replied.

I looked around at the others, wondering if we were all going to this party and how we would get in at all. Captain stood up and smiled.

"Okay, any volunteers?" he asked.

There was a deafening, awkward silence.

"I think the twins need to go, they won't be recognized. And Brielle." Banner suggested.

I shot him a glare and he put his hands up in surrender.

"Alright, I agree with that," Cap smiled, "And I'll tag along as well. No shield or anything."

"So what, are we supposed to just pull up to a Dillards in the meantime or what?" I asked.

Hawkeye landed the quinjet to the side of a Nordstrom and Tony tried handing me his debit card.

"Tony, you know I can easily cover this." I said.

We hopped out of the quinjet and started walking towards the store.

"Pietro, will you carry me?" Wanda whined.

"Yeah, Pietro. I'm getting tired." I complained.

He rolled his eyes and took Wanda on his back before speeding to the front of the store, then coming back to grab me and run back to the store and same with Cap.

"Okay, you guys go off and find suits or whatever. Brielle and I will shop for dresses. Get something kind of loose." Wanda instructed.

I was excited to dress shop, mainly because I never really had the time. I had the money, definitely, but never did I need dresses for being a physicist. Plus, I wanted to see Wanda in a nice dress looking absolutely dazzling.

"Are you as excited as I am?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't usually have nice things, so this will be a fun change." she replied, beaming.

I found a dress that was baby pink and strapless, not to mention it was gorgeous. The bottom was practically straight but the tag said it was a flare, so I grabbed it in a few different sizes. Wanda stood a few feet away, eyeing a few dresses but not approaching any of them.

"Wanda, I think you would look hot in red," I stepped forward and picked out a cherry red dress, "Look at this one! Try it on, please."

She laughed and nodded.

"Okay, okay, I will. But we both have to come out wearing them!"

"Deal." I agreed.

After getting changed into my dress, I walked out feeling slightly concious. I felt like the dress not having sleeves would make it slide down my cleavage, which I certianly did not want to be a problem. But Wanda strutted out in that cherry red dress that had a deep slit down the cleavage and a slit to show off her leg.

"Yeah, okay, we're definitely getting these dresses." I said.

"I agree, I feel really pretty in this dress. I bet Vision will like it." Wanda mumbled.

Finally we met at a counter and paid all together for our formal attire, along with some makeup I added, totaling to over five thousand dollars. With the swipe of my card, we were back flying on the quinjet.

"How long do we have until Ukraine?" Clint asked.

"About another eight hours," Tony leaned back in his seat, "I would get some rest if I were you guys."

I strapped myself in and heaved a heavy sigh. Clint and Natasha were already beginning to doze off, Banner had headphones on and his eyes shut, Tony put the ship on auto pilot and was turning on music. 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' started playing softly earning an inquisitive glance from Thor and the twins.

Pietro took the seat next to me. I looked down and pretended not to notice him, not wanting another argument to occur.

"Hey." he said.

"Hi." I replied, finally looking at him.

He cleared his throat and crossed his arms. I expected him to say something, but the words ceased to come out.

"Pietro, tell me what you're trying to say." I said.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for what happened earlier... I should not have said what I did."

"It's okay, I'm not mad. I'm sorry for getting so upset with you." I apologized.

We sat in silence again. I took the opportunity to think about the day I gained my powers.

I had always been weary with sending my parents my studies in physics. They didn't understand any of it, so I would always leave minor portions out of it so they couldn't let somebody else take the credit. When I flew to Ukraine to visit my parents, I didn't know that the visit would be so hostile.

I found myself strapped in to a table with needles being dug into my arms and screaming.

A hand touched my arm and I jumped.

"Brielle, don't think about that, you don't need to be reliving that." Wanda whispered.

"You know, there was some good in that day. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here right now. That's where I met you, where I met Pietro, Fury. It wasn't _all_ bad." I replied.

She sighed and sat back down. It was honestly a complete lie, I was trying to make her feel better. That day was utterly disasterous and I ended up slaughtering hundreds. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a bad thing; they were a hostile organization and the world might be different hadn't I destroyed that base.

If it wasn't for Fury, I would be alone in my lab at Harvard again possibly making new discoveries. But alone. Fury helped me by getting me a therapist that helped me through it all. It helped being surrounded by people, not fellow students who only talked about school. That's what my life revolved around- school.

The Avengers became something that I was urged to join to learn to control and better my powers, but also build real lasting friendships. I never had a best friend growing up, my parents flew back and forth from Ukraine and left me to myself.

Pietro's head fell onto my shoulder and starting snoring lightly. I moved my arm up and let his body fall into my lap. Normally, I wouldn't allow anybody to sleep on me, but I felt oddly charitable. I had began to feel weary myself and tried to hum to keep myself awake before surrendering to sleep.

I woke to Wanda, Pietro and Steve dressed in their nice attire for tonight.

"How much longer until Ukraine?" I asked.

"About an hour." Clint responded.

It took my that full hour to change into my dress and put on my makeup, then applying makeup to Wanda as well. Not it was just a matter of waiting before we could do anything else.

To get into the party only took Wanda a glance and we stepped into the incredibly formal setting. Steve had his arm wrapped around my waist as we walked next to Pietro and Wanda. Most of the attendees were men that had a beautiful woman on each of their arms.

"So, what do we do?" I asked.

"Talk to people and hope we aren't recognized." Steve replied.

Wanda was concentrated as she studied the people around the room and Pietro had a protective grip on her waist. Goosebumps raised on my body when Steve moved his hand further up my body.

"I don't think there's anybody here." I told Steve.

He shrugged.

"Maybe not. Either way, it's fun to dress up once in a while, isn't it?"

We walked around, not receiving much attention from anybody. We were only twenty minutes into the party when Cap strayed off.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Couples began to meet in the middle of the ballroom and slow dance. It appeared by the way they were moving that they were free styling an Argentine tango. The lights dimly lit the ballroom so that the atmosphere appeared more romantic than it really was.

I sat in a chair watching the couples sway in front of me with my brows knit together. I had no idea where Steve had gone; he told me he would go get a drink really quickly but it's been twenty minutes since he left. That wasn't like Steve, it scared me that the sensible one of us all had disappeared. Plus, I was feeling a little lonesome without a date.

Wanda appeared at my side, laughing wildly, eyes bulging and lipstick smeared.

"Wanda?" I asked.

She was wobbling in her heels before falling back into my lap. Her head lolled to the side and her lips touched my ears.

Wanda whispered something in Sokovian in my ear before giggling again.

"English, Wanda." I commanded.

She looked at me funny before frowning. Pietro jogged over to us looking understandably concerned.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"I think she's drunk. Steve disappeared, I don't know where he went-" I began to choke back a sob, "I'm going to check the men's bathroom."

He lifted Wanda off of my lap and sped off with her, leaving me alone. I walked timidly to the men's bathroom and stared for a few seconds. Eventually a stocky man walked out looked at me annoyedly.

The door flying open revealed no Steve.

"Dyvlyachysʹ dlya koho?" (Looking for someone?)

I turned to meet a tall, obviously wealthy, Ukranian man. He was golden tan with dark hair and sea green eyes.

"Ne khto-nebudʹ zokrema. Vy rozmovlyayete anhliysʹkoyu?" I asked.

"Yes, I speak English." he replied.

I smiled and bit my lip, only succeeding in making me appear more apprehensive.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Katya." I responded slyly.

"Harnyy. My name is Yasha. Would you care to join me on the dance floor?" he replied

He had already taken my hand and established his dominance. I had absolutely no dance experience, I could only play along and act as if I had an idea what I was doing. His sparkling blue eyes were quite charming, but he looked at least five years older than me.

Quickly, Yasha, or James as English speakers would translate, began to whisk me across the floor and spin me around quickly. James dipped me and spun me around more, before lifting me and dipping me to the floor.

"Get out of there now!" I heard in my ear piece. Pietro appeared next to us and tapped on his shoulder.

"May I?" he asked.

Yasha looked irritated and hmphed as he handed me off to Pietro. He didn't know how to dance either, so we slow danced instead.

"Are we supposed to be getting out of here?" I whispered next to his ear.

He chuckled as if I had said something interesting and let his hands drop to my sides to pull me closer.

"That man you were dancing with is a mutant. There are several HYDRA agents in here and they're after you and me. If we speed out of here, they'll blow up the quinjet." he whispered.

I giggled and readjusted my hands to hang around his neck.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"Go dance with Yasha."

I didn't want to separate from Pietro because I felt safer with him, obviously rather than the mutant I was about to dance with. I sighed into his neck and drifted apart from him to try and find James. He found me and held me against his body within moments of seeing him.

"I saw you talking to your little partner. Scream and I'll kill you." he murmured.

My breath hitched and my hands wrapped around his neck, refusing to look at his eyes. I glanced and saw Pietro watching, speaking into his ear piece.

"What's it to you?" I asked.

"Stop acting like a little Suka. I work for HYDRA and I know who you are. You act like you are so above me, like you aren't one of us," he paused to squeeze my ass, "That's not fucking cool."

I finally looked at him and served him the dirtiest glare I could muster. Within seconds his hand striked my face and I yelped. I began to slow all bullets in the room before hearing a familiar voice.

"Stop!"

Steve stood in the corner of the room with a pretty woman on his arm. I flushed a sigh of relief and felt even more so when Pietro sped to my side. Everybody seized their weapons, seeming to want to listen to the decorated soldier.

"Steve-"

"At ease, Soldier." he spat.

I looked at Pietro whose eyes were steadily trained on his. My expression hardened against Cap, whom I recognized as one of my own personal heroes. The woman's eyes met mine and she smirked.

"Pietro, Brielle, don't do any harm here." he warned.

"And why not?" Pietro asked.

"They won't harm you." the woman assured.

"Peggy?" She wouldn't be alive, or she would at least be very elderly. That wasn't Peggy.

"Steve! It's not her!" I shouted.

Peggy pulled out a gun which I sent a force to make it fall to the floor and stick due to increased gravity. Steve ran at me and bullets were flying towards us once more. I took the gravity out from the weapons, including their bullets. I felt my head fly back and suddenly we were in the quinjet, which was speeding away quickly.

Pietro and I sat wordless next to each other. I didn't want to talk about the incident; I knew that if I talked about it that I would become emotional and that wasn't an option. I felt his hand grasp my knee, a slight sign of affection if anything. My hand fell softly on top of his in return.

"So are you guys going to tell us what happened or not?" Clint asked.

Niether of us replied.

"Hello? What happened to Steve?" he pressed.

"Shut up, Clint. We can wait." Thor snapped.

Silence. The quinjet hummed peacefully for a long time. The three of us eventually changed out of our attire into our customary clothes. My mind was racing with thoughts as to how we could just _leave_ Steve. I loved him, he was one of my best friends and protectors.

"I don't mean to be impatient, but if you could give me any piece of advice it would be helpful." JARVIS spoke.

"Peggy was there." I muttered.

Natasha sat next to me and began scratching my back, guiding me to lay my body across her lap. I felt like a giant baby amongst who I considered to all be gods, with the exception of Thor- I knew he was an actual god. But since day one I was the one being nurtured like a newborn colt; it was as if I couldn't stand on my own two feet.

That's what made me miss Steve right now because he would certainly know what to say.

"Relax, Kid. Steve can hold his own." Nat cooed.

I began to shut my eyes but couldn't drift off to sleep. My mind wandered back to my childhood, taking in the several long jet rides I endured with endless snacks and drinks. Ukrainian was a second language to me after visiting there so many times. Never did I suspect that I was a next-in-line HYDRA agent, bred from birth to be the next newest breakthrough.

"Mystique." JARVIS said. Holograms of new articles and a biography flashed in the middle of the quinjet. That explained how Peggy was able to appear young and capture Steve.

I let Natasha stand and observe the information and Vision took her seat.

"Hello, Brielle." he greeted.

"Hi, Vision." I responded.

"I suppose you are upset?"

"We were defenseless. There was a room full of people aiming their guns at us and Steve was tricked to being on their side and Wanda wasn't able to fight... it's all so confusing."

"God knows how uncomfortable you are with being confused." he responded.

A slight grin cracked through for a moment before falling back to a frown. He was watching me as I did so, never taking his eyes off of me.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, I am alright. Are you?"

I shrugged and stared at Pietro and Wanda who sat turned away from the holograms.

"Well, if I may offer you a word, I think you are doing a fantastic job." he added.

"Fantastic job at what?" I asked.

"Being an Avenger."

"If I didn't have Speed Racer over there, I'd be dead." I chuckled.

He began to watch their interaction as well, how he had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and her head fell back into his chest. It made me wish that I had any sibling or best friend growing up because I envied how close they were to each other. I haven't ever had that kind of relationship.

"You love him?" Vision asked.

I shook my head.

"Well, it depends how you're asking." I quickly added.

"It's very apparent that you two care about each other immensely. You seem to be very compatible." he replied.

"We may be compatible but we're both emotionally unstable. It wouldn't work." I said.

"I do admit I have feelings for Wanda. She is quite exquisite in her form and has astounding intelligence," he smiled, "I don't have a considerable amount of emotion and she is emotionally unstable, but I think with effort it is plausible."

"I didn't know you had emotion!" I exclaimed.

He nodded solemnly and smiled.

"Yes. Not in the way that you do, but I do. I care for Wanda and her brother, for Steve, for our team. I _do_ care about you and your wellness. I only hope the best for you." he replied.

I smiled and leaned over to him for a side hug. He tentatively hugged me back and let me be the first one to pull away. Vision and I simultaneously looked back at the twins who were now asleep on the floor of the quinjet. I hated knowing that they endured so much in their upbringing and still chose to fight where they suffered.

* * *

 _I didn't realize how short my chapters were! I'm going to try to lengthen them a lot more! Sorry if this was kind of boring :/_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Steve isn't here, so I vote that Vision take over. Who's in?" Clint asked.

"No, no, no, no, no. He's barely two years old, he can't!" Tony protested.

I rolled my eyes and observed the team argue. Even the twins became exasperated with their fight and began arguing with each other. Vision remained silent and seemed to contemplate each argument. I thought he should intervene, because he would simmer the ordeal.

"It is my vote that we rescue Steve. I am deciding to do just that. Now, if you want to do other things such as initiate more battles, then you can do that. But if you are going to join me, I'm leaving tomorrow morning at seven. Now, if you'll excuse me." Vision said.

He gave a curt nod and walked away to his room in the tower. The arguing had halted and the team seemed to be thinking of their response.

"I'm not going." Thor said, letting his heavy hammer sit on the table.

"What?" I asked.

"Me neither. It's too dangerous." Clint added.

My eyes flickered over to Tony. He was staring back at me. I gave him a pleading look. Gosh, Tony _please_ Tony be on my side.

"C'mon guys, he's our team mate!" Tony slammed his fist down on the table, "If we ignore this, what are we going to do when one of _us_ goes missing? Should just ignore it?"

Wanda took my hand and pulled me close to her so she could wrap an arm around me. My vision was dizzying as the argument raged on. Clint shouted more and Natasha shouted at him about shouting. Thor roared back at the two. My eyes began to flood with tears but I quickly wiped them before any of the team members saw.

I just wanted Steve back, I wanted him to train with me and joke around with me. The team needed him back to keep us moral and to keep us from falling apart like we were right now without him to lead us.

Electricity began flowing through my veins and it twitched between my fingers.

"He's fine on his own! I know he'll join us in due time." Thor rebutted.

I couldn't help but become more agitated. Anger boiled within me and only fired my shock even more.

"Tony it doesn't matter!" Clint barked.

My hands reached forward onto the table and sent the building shock out of my body onto the surface of the table. The electricity buzzed around the table like lightning strikes. Pietro grabbed my arm and yanked me away back against the wall. My breathing stopped for a moment before I unintentionally increased his gravity and made him slam against the ground _hard_.

Wanda panicked and shrieked. I released him as soon as I realized what I had done and he quickly zoomed out of the room.

"I-I need to go." I mumbled.

I traveled out of the room and waited until I reached my bedroom to break down in tears. Physical pain seized me as electricity surged through my veins once again with no where to go be released. I couldn't stand the agonizing, burning pain and screamed to the heavens until my lungs gave out.

* * *

There was a hand that repeatedly tapped my arm. I groaned and turned on my side, annoyed. Sunlight was illuminating my room and keeping me more awake. Eventually I gave into the intruding guest.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Vision was standing next to my bed with his crystal blue eyes staring down at me. Normally, somebody would be afraid of this situation, but I was accustomed to being woken up by a witch, a god, a man in a metal suit, and robots that I just couldn't be fazed anymore.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's 6:30 and I am leaving soon. Can I assume your presence?" he asked.

I nodded quickly.

"Oh, yes, of course. I'll be there. Thank you." I responded.

He left me to my peace, well, more to my lonesome and horror. My mouth gaped open to see that my metal bed frame had been struck with electricity, probably in my sleep, and had charred holes in it's structure.

I sighed heavily and realized how _weak_ I was. I couldn't even stand out of my bed without nearly collapsing. My breakdown last night used all of my energy and sleep couldn't replace all of it. Oh, and _Pietro_. I needed to apologize to him for being so unacceptably violent towards him, and probably to the entire team as well.

My head spun when I took my first steps out of my room to be met with an empty floor. Nobody was hustling to get breakfast or watch television or converse about training- it was eerie. My first thought was the pantry where I ate as much food as I could manage. Within a few minutes, I was able to run and put on my uniform.

Stark designed my uniform to be durable and outstanding. It was charcoal gray and along the sleeves was an illuminated and physically glowing electric blue gradient, with the same pattern appearing on my legs as well. I grabbed my blue gloves that matched and headed out to the quinjet.

I almost squealed with delight to see the entire team suited up on the quinjet studying a holographic map. The sunrise shone through the windows and cast a silhouette on the team. I stared in awe at the scene that I would probably never see again.

"Coming?" Stark asked.

Pietro avoided my glance, actually, most of the team did. The only person who didn't was Vision who was not there to see me lash out like that. I sat next to him and listened for what Tony was going to say.

"Listen up, guys. It's going to be very difficult to find Steve, but we will manage. Wherever he is, he will be with other mutants. They are expecting us to come after him, so we must be prepared at all times. Now, last we saw him was in Ukraine. Magneto has a base in Ukraine, we just need to find it. We'll spread out in pairs. If you find it, it is imperative that you _do not_ go inside until we have all arrived. Understood?" Tony announced.

"What if we find Magneto?" Banner asked.

"You won't, he hides until the rest of his mutants aren't able." Wanda answered.

I shuddered and looked around the room. Banner and Natasha were partners, surprisingly Wanda partnered with Vision and Pietro partnered with Hawkeye. Thor came and sat next to me, taking up nearly two seats.

"You will be my partner. Is that alright?" he asked.

"Of course."

Tony was alone, but I knew that he preferred it to be that way. He could handle being by himself and didn't exactly mesh well with any one person on the team. I would be happy being his partner because him and I had intellectual discussions often and we learned by each other.

I was hurt that Pietro didn't choose me. Not that we were exactly close friends, but he and I worked well together. Even if it wasn't Pietro, it would be Wanda or Natasha or Vision.

Thor took out a large cell phone and began clicking on the screen with his giant fingers that continually pressed the wrong buttons.

"Do you need some help?" I asked.

"Ah! Yes. Jane gave me this communication device and I can't seem to press on what I'm supposed to." he replied.

I chuckled and took the iPhone 6 plus out of his hands and clicked back to the home screen.

"What do you want to do?"

"Um, she said to face call her before I went on missions."

I clicked on the facetime icon and went to her contact name and called her before handing it back to him. Jane quickly answered from inside her lab.

"Hello Jane!" Thor exclaimed.

"Hi, Babe! What's up?"

He gave a wide smile.

"I'm about to go on a mission. Brielle is next to me!"

He moved the camera so I was in the frame and I waved at her.

"Hi Jane! How's the work?" I asked.

We had a long talk before her technology began acting up and she had to hang up. We had about three more hours until Ukraine, and Pietro was sitting alone. He clearly doesn't want to talk to me, but I can't just let him remain upset with me! I excused myself from Thor and went to sit next to him.

"Pietro," I tried to get him to look at me, "I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday."

His hard expression didn't fade and instead he put his head down and pulled his knees up to his face.

"I couldn't control myself and you are one of the last people that I would ever want to hurt. I hope that we can still be friends." I added. Still nothing. I tried putting my hand on his arm but he zoomed across the quinjet to the front where Tony was sitting.

That stung, a lot. With a heavy heart, I sat back in my seat and pulled out one of my notebooks that specialized in electromagnetism. I browsed through the pages and unsolved equations and frankly didn't have the energy to sort through them. The more I discovered, however, the stronger and more diverse my powers were.

The rest of my time was spent scribbling mindlessly with a lot of drawings and Greek letters while simultaneously being ignored by the rest of the team. It wasn't until we were exiting the quinjet that I would have my next interaction.

"So, where are we going to go?" I asked Thor.

He shrugged and swung his hammer around aimlessly.

"I'm not sure. I don't know this place well, I will let you take the lead, Lady." he responded.

We walked together for a couple hours. Occasionally, a team member would ask if anybody has found anything with the same deafening silence. I finally turned off my ear piece, not wanting to hear their voices when they refused to talk to me.

"Is there something wrong?" Thor asked.

"Well, the team is very upset with me about last night, which I'm not sure why. I mean, you guys have certainly done worse things to each other and the next day you're drinking beer with each other," I turned to face him, "I don't want to cover up my actions like it wasn't bad, but it wasn't purposeful at all."

"I don't think the team expects you to do act out. They have high expectations for you and expect you to keep up to them. Everybody expects me to be a pig-headed idiot and don't care when I get upset." he replied.

I huffed. There was no reason for me to have high expectations forced upon me. My powers weren't completely controllable yet and my emotions were equivalent still to the day of my experiment. Even Cap got in fights and was never held accountable!

"Why are you still nice to me?" I asked.

"Because I see your value and have seen your future."

"What do you see in my future?"

He laughed a big, hearty laugh before messing up my neatly straightened platinum hair.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

* * *

 _I honestly tried making it longer! I could have gone longer, I will jam a lot of content in my next chapter however. Thanks for reading x_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"How do you know so much about this country?" Thor asked.

What? I assumed that Fury had told him everything before I joined the team. Perhaps he was in Asgard and missed the long, important discussion that explained how I ended up on the team. Either way, I would have to retell my story.

"It's a long story, if you're willing to listen." I replied with a chuckle.

"I suppose we will have a lot of time."

We had walked a few miles already in the lush green landscape and haven't spotted anything. There was another desperate call for any sign of Steve or anything really, which resulted in another sigh from someone I couldn't make out. I double checked that my ear piece was turned off and began to tell my story.

"So, I'll begin with the obvious. I grew up with physics my entire life, parents weren't exactly present for most of it because they were busy... here. I ended up studying at Harvard, which is where my studies really took off. My parents always asked for my discoveries and notebooks, which I would fax over to them. Every single inch of paper I wrote on. But before I faxed them, I changed one little detail which would set the whole thing off. I wanted credit to go to me for the discoveries; I had a Nobel prize in physics pending.

These notes were sent to my parents in Ukraine. Unbeknownst to me, my work was being published at a HYDRA facility here. One day, my parents flew me to that facility. I assumed they wanted to introduce me to one of their business deals, you know, my family being wealthy and all.

But the second I arrived, I was strapped to a table and wheeled to a room where my parents watched me get pierced with needles. They cheered with joy and told me that what I discovered would become a part of me. Because I sent them misconstrued information, everything went wrong. How they converted laws into biology- I don't know. But when I woke up, I had my powers."

Thor's phone buzzed and he read a message from Jane.

"Sorry, continue." he urged.

"I had no clue how my powers worked, but I began to realize really fast. I could only manipulate gravity at the time, and the facility began crashing down. I sent large pieces of the building to fall onto my parents-"

I stopped talking and and worked on choking back my sobs. There was not one person in that facility that I regretted killing that day, but it was a traumatic experience nonetheless. Thor wrapped an arm around me and brought me against his side. Although I refused to express my emotion, I know that he could see past my facade.

"Sorry-"

"No, it's quite okay. That's really hard. I'm sorry that you... had to go through that." he responded.

"Anyway, I killed hundreds of HYDRA workers that day. Some of you guys were coming to shut it down, but only found me lying 50 yards away near death. Fury took me in because he saw potential and my hate towards HYDRA and I guess he bred it for something better."

"Where was that facility?" Thor inquired.

"About twenty miles north of Kiev."

He began spinning his hammer and grabbed onto my waist, where we were thrown in the air traveling faster than my sight could register. In half a minute, we were standing at the ruins of the facility. It looked the same as when I left it, except moss began to grow on the outside. I turned on my ear piece before we took another step.

"Hey, Thor and I are at the facility. I know it's destroyed and stuff, but we're going to check it out." I shared.

"Copy that." Tony responded.

Thor began cautiously walking toward the building first so I followed close behind him. It took a few minutes before we built the courage to walk in where the entrance was. Darkness flooded the inside with only stingy moss illuminated on the expensive marble floors.

There was a blast of light and Thor was thrown backwards twenty feet in the air.

The same blast came toward me and I reflected it back to the source. In the few milliseconds that it occurred, I could see the man sending the kinetic blasts to me. He sent more and more small blasts that I reflected until Thor came flying toward the man with his hammer.

"COPY. Team needs to report here-" I deflected another blast, "NOW."

Thor's swing was no use, as it was shot away from the man. I ran at him with a new found courage and sent a blast of energy and a streak of lightening at the man. He began shaking violently with electrocution but sent another blast that knocked me off balance.

"Find Steve!" I shouted at Thor. He whizzed past the man and left me alone to fight him. He and I ran at each other and began fighting hand on hand. I had to spread out my energy and wait until the team was near until I could use my full potential.

The man took my arms and swung me over his head, but kicked him in the face as he did so and landed as if I was riding horseback on his shoulder. He grunted and took me by the waist to throw me to the ground. I was shocked and couldn't react in time. His hands locked onto my chest and sent a wave of painful energy throughout my body.

I couldn't contain it and screamed out so that it echoed and bounced off the walls. My hands grabbed onto his head and sent electricity through his bloodstream so that we were both trembling and shouting in agony.

"Someone!" I cried, "Do you COPY?"

"Coming!" Pietro responded.

I kicked him off of my body and conjured a strong force of gravity that made him stick to the floor. His hands still aimed up at me and shot at me but I couldn't react. He sent a blast at my eye that made me scream at the top of my lungs.

"Pietro!" I shouted.

My energy could only be concentrated on gravity. I cried out with every blast he sent at me that I couldn't reflect. He sent another blast at me and I was sent on my knees. The next blast was aimed near the entrance, but he missed. Pietro appeared next to me as did Clint, who shot a net arrow at the man, and another, and another, until he was wrapped by ten nets.

"You try to use your powers, and this will continue to electrocute you for hours." Clint barked.

Thor and Steve appeared, Steve having several wounds and bruises on his face. Pietro sat me down and I finally realized that I didn't have sight in my left eye.

"Pietro... oh my gosh, I can't see out of my left eye!" I whimpered. He began to hush me while swiping my hair out of my face. Pietro gingerly touched my eye which burned while I seethed in pain.

I couldn't see his face anymore after sobbing violently and blurring my only eye that had vision. Speaking of Vision, he flew in with Wanda in his arms and Tony behind him. Pietro wiped my eye and placed a paternal kiss to the top of my head.

"It is okay, Katya, it will be alright. Remain calm, okay?" he cooed. I nodded and laid my head on his chest. Pietro lifted me up and ran back to the quinjet so we appeared in just a few seconds. He laid me on the floor and pulled out a gurney from the storage. I couldn't believe that my eyesight was completely gone in my eye. I was laid in the gurney and curled up on my side.

"How long until the rest of the team gets back?" I asked.

"Probably a few minutes or so." he replied.

I took the opportunity to release a long, dramatic sob and begin to cry. Cry because I was half-blind, because I was in pain, because I had to experience pain in the place that scarred me for a lifetime, and because I couldn't fend for myself like I should be able to.

"This is all my fault!" I screeched. The tears burned my eye which made me howl like a cat.

Pietro held me down with an arm over my chest and began dabbing at my face before hushing me again.

"Quiet down, shh," he waited until I was nearly quiet before continuing, "This is not your fault. Steve is okay now because you didn't let us slack off. Okay? I'm not mad at you, the team isn't mad at you. You did a good job and saved Steve's life."

I sniffled and nodded.

"Now, get yourself together before the team gets back. I know how horrified you would be if they saw you crying." he teased.

"I'm horrified _you_ saw me cry." I laughed.

"Well, it's okay. I'm your best friend after all, better me than somebody else, right?"

I smiled and before I knew it, Steve was being helped into the quinjet with the rest of the team. Pietro set up another gurney and they hefted the large man onto it so we were side by side. I let out a sigh of relief that we finally could lie down and return back to the Avengers tower.

"How are you holding up?" I asked Steve, that I only had partial view of.

He audibly winced and reached out to touch my face.

"I'm doing alright I guess, but look at that shiner!"

"Thanks." I replied sarcastically.

Steve laughed and let his hand drop to grasp mine.

"Thanks for coming for me, Anti-Gravity." he said with a smirk.


End file.
